Learning 360s

Learning 360s

The 5th ranked PWA wave sailor, Dany Bruch, is known for his progressive wave riding, bringing incredible moves into smooth riding. Here Dany takes you through how to do his two favourite moves, the frontside and backside 360.

The Frontside 360 Explained

The Frontside 360 is a 360 degree rotation during the frontside surfing, i’s one of the most exciting feelings in waveriding.

Basically you need to have a nice wave and create a lot of speed in your bottom turn. Then face the lip with your board beyond vertical, at 11 o’clock, give a strong whip with your hip and pull back your head to get the push of the wave, rotate and open the sail to get the power away and carry on sailing.

Before learning the frontside 360 you should be able to create enough speed in your wave riding turns…once you are able to do some nice hits, either frontside or backside…aerials back or frontside would be good to know how to do to make the learning easier too. You basically need speed and a bit of control to go for the first attempts.

The Backside 360 Explained

The backside 360 is a similar move in terms of rotation, but has nothing to do with the frontside one. I would say it is quite a bit more technical, so again, you need speed riding backside, you need to be able to create a little “pop”, to boost into an aerial backside and smack the breaking white water behind you’re body. You do half of the rotation before having hit the section, so that the power of the wave together with a pull on your rig does the rest, making the final part of the rotation to carry on sailing.

Conditions

You should be powered up on small sails to make it easier, 5.0 down I would say, medium size waves are recommended too so that they help you get that push from the wave to make the whole rotation.

How Long Will It Take?

It depends a bit on the intensity you are working on a new move, you could probably get some nailed quite soon, but until you can say that you control one it always takes some time. A few sessions to get the first ones, a year minimum until you know exactly what to do. I always think that to learn a new move properly you need a years time minimum!

The Five Progressions will explain exactly what your learning process is likely to be and how to progress onto the next stage…

The Five Progressions

Frontside 360:

You stop sticking your mast top in the wave. Phase one you have the speed, hit the wave but nothing happens, you normally stick the mast top in the wave and stop any kind of rotation.

You stop doing goo screws, landing behind the wave. Phase two you try to go for the aerial version, doing the same mistake with the mast top, but maybe rotate a few, landing behind the wave.

You do the rotation and stay in the wave, but probably with the board upside down and under you’re sail. Phase three, you try to make a combo of both first phases..speed and turning without sticking the mast top, but normally staying under the white water.

You start to flip the board the way that you can carry on sailing but probably still fighting under the white water as the sail is not upright enough. Phase four you get to the point where you get into the rotation, without sticking the top and getting pushed from the wave. Here you have got to apply the trick, pulling back your head to the direction of the beach and giving that “whipp” with you’re hips to make the whole gear turn. After turning you hold your sail upright and get wind in it again to carry on sailing in the same wave…A LOT of attempts later you will start to make the first ones…be patient. 😉

You rotate and actually carry on sailing.

KEY POINT – Timing is really important in this move, as you have to choose the most critical section of the wave to start the rotation, if you are too early or too late…you won’t be able to do it!

The Five Progressions

Backside 360:

You try to push your sail into the wind and stop getting pushed down from the wind. Phase one you have the speed and you try to face the lip pushing the sail against it, but you get blown down by the wind and stopped directly.

You do an aerial backside pushing the sail into the wind and stop to get knocked down from the wind. Phase two you do an aerial backside and you push the sail against the wind, ending up in the water loosing the wave.

You start to do the rotations landing behind the wave. Phase three you do an aerial backside, push the sail against the wind and rotate like a shaka, but landing behind the wave.

You start landing in the wave, but losing grip once landing on the open face. Phase four you start to do some aerial backside 360 and land a few by mistake…really motivating 😉

You start to rotate and understand the move. Phase five you start to understand the move, getting into the aerial with a chop in front of the wave, creating that “pop” that makes you do half of the rotation before you hit the white water, so that the push of the wave and a pull on the rig makes you finalise the move.

KEY POINT – Again, timing is really important, but more important is to understand the last phase. I’ll explain roughly; normally in front of each wave, there are little bits of chop that can allow you do a little aerial backside. So you look for that, check the breaking section of the wave at the same time and try to pop up into a backside aerial, pushing the sail into the wind and leaning your body weight on top of the gear, smacking the lip or white water. Once you’ve done that, you have to pull your rig around to get the wind and power out of the sail to finalise the rotation.

For both of the two moves there are existing variations on how to do them, for example you can do the frontside 360 as a whole aerial down the line, but to start with these twp is good and hard work already, so enjoy the process and good luck! And never give up! 😉

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